“You know she’s going to be pissed, right?” I ask him.
Jamar nods. “For a while. But when she catches up, she’ll realize why I did it.” He holds out his hand to Taylor, who takes it eagerly. “We don’t have our grandma anymore. It’s just me and Niki, and we never really found a place we belonged after Grandma died, no matter where we went to. Then we met you.” He looks at Taylor when he says this. “I know Niki feels the same, but she’s just worried about me and not about herself. This is right for us. And she’ll realize that, too.”
I love his optimism. I want the optimism of a thirteen-year-old in love for the first time.
Fourteen rounded down to ten.
“Hey, guys,” Taylor says. She points at a shopping center to our right. It’s the next morning and we’ve gotten off the road to look for a neighborhood with a car we can borrow. I saw the shop signs from a ways down the road, though judging by the names listed, I’d assumed we wouldn’t find food there. But Taylor isn’t pointing at a food store. “Mind if we stop in here for a sec?”
It’s a Books-A-Million.
“I’ve been meaning to look for an atlas,” Cara says. “Ours is still in Jamie’s pack.” Then she gives me a nervous glance, realizing she just said the J-word.
“Yeah, we should probably stop and get one.”
We head over to the store. Like most, the front glass has been smashed in. But where hardware, clothing, and grocery stores all look like they experienced a full-on siege, the bookstore looks like one lonely individual threw a brick through the front doors and walked in.
In fact, when we pass through the second set of doors, there’s a brick on the floor.
The Kid runs off in the direction of the toys and children’s books. Rocky Horror looks at Cara and me for backup, but I shake my head. “We’re getting the road atlas.”
“I’ll go with you, RH,” Amy says, carrying Henri-Two over the glass, then following the Kid.
Rocky Horror cups his hands over his mouth and shouts, “Oi! Kid! Don’t touch any wild animals.”
Taylor and Jamar go off on their own as Cara and I search for the travel section. Most of the shelves are still full of books. I wonder why. Maybe if there’s a big reader nearby, they use it like a library, taking only what they want, then returning them when they’re done.
There’s a spiral-bound Rand McNally road atlas. Cara grabs it and we head back to the front of the store to get more light. While she skims the pages, I find a pack of expensive calligraphy pens by the counter. I rip open the box and hand a couple of pens to her, then head back to check on Rocky Horror and Amy.
“You have two stuffed animals already.” Rocky Horror is pointingat Bobo and the stuffed Pokémon. “Why don’t you pick out a couple of books?”
“I don’t know how to read,” the Kid says like it should be the most obvious thing in the world.
Rocky Horror sticks a thumb in my direction. “Neither does Andrew, and he’s doing great.”
“Which is why you should pick some books,” I say, taking the Kid’s hand and steering him away from the toys. Then I shoot a threatening glance back at Rocky Horror. “Maybe Rocky Horror will be nice and read them to us.”
“Guys, come here!” Taylor shouts.
“One sec!” I point the Kid to a section of picture books and tell him to pick out three with cool pictures. “Where are you?” I shout.
“Back here.”
I follow Taylor’s voice and turn the corner to see her and Jamar standing in the romance section. How appropriate. But they don’t look like they’ve been very romantic back here. Aside from Jamar holding Taylor’s hand.
She points at a shelf. “Look.”
I scan the books and come to a stop on two full shelves of paperbacks that make my heart break.
Daphne De Silva’s name is bigger than the titles.
Rocky Horror, Amy, and Cara join us.
“Holy shit.” Rocky Horror takes one of the paperbacks down and looks at the cover. “I knew she was a writer, but I didn’t realize she wasprolific.”
“Oh yeah,” Amy says. “She was very popular. After a couple bottles of wine one night a few years back, she told me she also wrotehorror under a pen name but wouldn’t tell me what it was.”
I grab another book; this one’s titledA Second Chance at Forever.The cover is illustrated and split diagonally down the middle by a crooked line. It shows two straight white couples, one younger, one older. I flip to the back and see a quote from a bestselling author about how “delightful” the book is. Below it are a couple of paragraphs about the people on the cover. It’s the same couple years later—high school sweethearts who are pulled apart after a tragic car accident during their senior year. Then a chance meeting fifteen years later draws them back together and they try to pick up where they left off, hoping to get a second chance at happily ever after.
